In a related story, a blogger had posted a picture from a Chick tract, about Catholics going to hell:
If you actually read the scripture quoted from Mark 2, notice that Chick sides with THE PHARISEES!
5 And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,
7 "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
9 "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'?
10 "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the paralytic,
11 "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home."
12 And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
At the risk of being uncharitable, I'd say that Jack may have misread that section, or is really stretching to justify his bias against the Catholic Church. Here's a section, from John 20, that Jack needs to re-read:
19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."
20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."
As successors to the apostles, a Catholic priest has the faculty to hear confessions, and relate God's forgiveness to the sinner! Thanks for playing, see you next week on "What Has Jack Been Smoking"...
4 comments:
St JimBob! I loved that post. I was 14 years old when I read a Chick tract and being a lousy young catholic kid, threw out the 2000 years of tradition, saintly lives, theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas, a Kempis, Augustine, Blaise Pascal, Chesterton, Belloc, etc etc. I traded all the theological genius god gave for us for an 8 page black and white poorly drawn tract. I have to chalk it up to youth and powerful brainwashing by the fundies I fell in with. Jesus did change my life but I lost his church and spent the next 31 years never quite feeling comfortable in my evangelical suit. Now being Catholic,again, I feel like I am truly home, and the wonderful sacrament of confession Jesus gave to his disciples is ours.
He forgives me so completely for rejecting his church, yet I am embarrassed because of my sheer anti-intellectual stupidity at the time in 1973. Thanks for the posts.
I am amazed now when I realize that folks like me will read a Chick tract and accept it's authority and reject 2000 years of truth and authority instituted by Christ himself.
For me, any blanket statement like "No one of such and such denomination is saved" is a good litmus test as to whether or not their opinions on spiritual matters has any value. This goes for both the Jack Chick types who say Catholics aren't saved, to Catholics who say no Protestants are going to Heaven.
When some of my fellow Baptists bring up similar lines of thought, I just shake my head. That is usually enough to start a heated conversation on the subject.
Yeah, Tiber, the Chick tract is very effective in dealing out theology for people who don't want to think about the issues deeper than comic-book level. My Fav Chick tract is the 'Death Cookie', slamming the Eucharist, and once again expounding on how Pope = Antichrist, Catholics -> Hell. No scripture reference can be more than one or two sentences, lest we fall into the error of 'Context', and never, ever, quote any christian writer who lived before 1500.
I LOVE Jack T. Chick tracts . . . I haven't read anything that funny since the last 9th Circuit opinion!!
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